The artist wishes to remain anonymous since the project is still underway. As you can see, the marbles have already made another move.

Are they being bashful marbles? Hiding behind the hillside?

The artist definitely has a strong intent every time they are moved.

And why haven’t we ever seen them move despite all these months of marbles knocking about the yard? Because they are specifically moved when no one is around—late at night or early in the morning. The artist admitted to sometimes hiding behind one when a car drives by.

Still, I wonder . . . . Where did the yellow marble disappear to for all those weeks? It wasn’t knocking about in someone else’s yard. I was never told the secret location for the yellow marble’s sabbatical.

So, there you have it. A mystery solved, in a way. What exactly the marbles are up to each time they are in a new position is for us to interpret.

When I was pregnant, we read that the best way to keep your children from having allergies to pets is to have animals around from the moment they're born. We took this advice very seriously since we are both pet lovers. At one time in elementary school, I had twenty-four mice, four gerbils, two hamsters, two rabbits, two ducks and a chameleon. Marty had dogs, cats, and a variety of smaller species. I wanted to be a veterinarian and go to Cornell when I was a kid until I discovered tap dancing.

Once the girls were born, our little dog Nell continued to sleep in our bed despite the addition of two smaller bundles that smelled strangely human. To Nell's delight, she soon learned that these bundles spit up when they made burping sounds. Nell loved to clean up that spit up wherever she could—on sheets, clothes, and babies' faces. She figured out that whenever she heard a burp, it meant potential goodies and she'd come running. Our biggest worry with our 120-pound Bernese Mountain Dog, Beary, was that he would unintentionally step on them. He never has. And now, the girls have learned the joy of feeding Beary at the table. They hand him puffed cereal and he sucks it right out of their hands.

As you can see, she is enthralled and he always uses a soft, gentle mouth to take them. Our worry now is that Lyra will never eat anymore since it is much more fun to feed the dog. Our gray cat Ruby loves to jump on the table, which the girls also find very entertaining. Ruby is a love nut, and will endure severe ear pulling and face grabbing until she finally can't take it and dashes away.

Lyra has taken to playing pony with Beary.

So far, no allergies seem to have surfaced. And they seem to love animals, too.

At long last, I have the answer to the mystery. If you've been following our blog, you'll know that we've been baffled by the large blue and yellow spheres that have been moving around the expansive yard of a house about a quarter mile down the road from us. If our blog had the capacity for people to post responses, I'd challenge everyone to take a guess at what these spheres really represent. Then I figured, hey, I can challenge everyone, and they can just take a guess in their heads. I'll post the answer in the next ten days. So, what do you think? Here are a few hints: They are by an artist. In fact, a third one is under construction.

The movement around the yard is definitely planned and done by the artist. But, they do not represent balls. What are they? Stay tuned!

Everyone keeps asking us how was the babies first Christmas? To be honest, everyday is Christmas for them right now. They wake up thrilled to see a new day, explore new objects to pull off shelves or stick in their mouths, and enjoy new tastes when they get strapped once again into their highchairs; then suddenly, it’s bath, bed, and beyond time once more.

Babies’ first Christmas seems to be for us parents. We get to show them off, buy them cute new outfits, and take lots of pictures with other family members. Ripley and Lyra loved the holiday attention and adored the wrapping paper that we had to constantly police so they didn’t eat it. And just like Thanksgiving, they were around the table that night with twelve other people, making funny sounds, dropping silverware and being in all ways adorable. Next year, it’ll be really their first Christmas with the introduction of—Santa!

Christmas morning in their Santa Suits—we couldn’t resist.

New Christmas boots from God Aunt Catherine. And they stay on!

A little overwhelmed by it all, Ripley needed her Christmas binky.

Christmas dinner started with some puffed cereal and a squeeze of Mom’s cheek.

Mail Box

Like your family we have twins, boy/girl, that turned three last month. I saw your blog entry for January and it looks like we have something in common, potty training twins. Like one of your girls, my son WILL NOT pee in the potty but his sister was doing well until she caught on to "Bubbie" not trying. I was just letting things run their course but our local pre-schools/mommy day out programs require the children to be potty trained and this mommy needs a day out. Bribery isn't working. Have you had any success?

I read in 40 Years of Life on the Street about an incident involving Snuffy's puppet where a sombrero caused the wood frame to collapse on you and Bryant Young. Did they rebuild the puppet after that or did they just make a new one?

I just wanted to say thanks for the blog. My daughter Kylie (who just turned two yesterday) loves to ask if we are going to see "the babies." Thank you so much to you and Marty for bringing the joy of Sesame Street into our lives every day.

I've noticed that there are fewer Muppets and people in an episode now than there were twenty years ago. Does everyone show up on the set for filming days or only certain ones? Who decides who gets to play the Anything Muppets? There are some voices I hear more than others.